The present disclosure relates to a platform for generating, executing, cloning, and managing application programming interface recipes.
With the onset of the Internet economy, numerous (e.g., hundreds, thousands, etc.) companies have developed online platforms providing all types of different functionalities and services to their end users. These third-party applications range from consumer applications, such as social media, photo sharing, money management, messaging, and entertainment platforms, to business and enterprise software as a service (SaaS) offerings, such as customer relationship management (CRM) platforms, enterprise resource planning (ERP) platforms, workplace collaboration platforms, financial and billing platforms, human resource management platforms, analytics platforms, etc.
A software application can access the computing services offered by these third-party applications using application programming interfaces (APIs) exposed by these platforms. In most cases, the APIs are accessible using standardized access protocols (e.g., SOAP, REST, CORBA, ICE, etc.). These APIs include software methods for accessing the various functionality of the applications, as well as data retrieval methods for accessing information about the APIs, objects, object types, and other aspects of the applications. The APIs generally require users have the requisite permission and authenticate using standard authentication routines (OpeniD, OAuth, various proprietary authorization protocols, etc.).
However, integrating (e.g., automate workflow between) these third-party applications (CRM, word processing, storage, versioning, and/or other services) is very complex, time and resource intensive, and ultimately very costly. Moreover, the custom software needed for any such integration is often unreliable due to the constancy of the changes that occur within the third-party applications and/or their APIs. Small to mid-sized business are often unable to bear these integration costs and ultimately lose sales. What is needed is a cost-effective, low-maintenance, active, and powerful third-party application integration platform that addresses the above-noted deficiencies.